Sleepwalking through the Apocalypse

Statement of Intent and Description

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Sleepwalking through the Apocalypse is a group of images that initially addressed my shock and horror at seeing the Twin Towers come crashing down.I have been reeling ever since, and what began as drawings, monotypes, and ideas eventually merged into a semi-narrative, very large triptych that approximated my response to the 21st century as I’ve understood it to this point. Close to two decades later, it is near completion.

The triptych is composed of three diptychs. They are to be placed from right to left. The first called Sleepers is to be seen from the viewer’s right. It is 96 x144 inches (two 8 x 6 foot canvases side by side).

The middle diptych is the same size but vertical, 144 x 96 inches.It is called Sleepwalking through the Apocalypse and depicts a tree of life morphing into other forms and images of contemporary hell. The branches are dancing women hardening into the tree itself. The tree’s center is dominated by a malevolent ventriloquist and her/his doll. The lower part has piles of heads, hands, fire illuminating the insides of the trunk, and two sleepwalking figures passing through the scene.

The third, in progress, again horizontal, is a scene of figures sleepwalking, moving from right to left. At the lower left of this diptych is the figure of man covering his eyes, facing right.